Mosbacher Credits Bush for Resignation of Navy Chief

President Bush’s national campaign chairman said Saturday that the resignation of Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III over alleged sexual assaults by Navy and Marine Corps pilots of women at a convention last year should make female voters appreciative of Bush’s concern for women’s rights.

Robert A. Mosbacher said in Los Angeles that Garrett’s resignation Friday--which included an admission that he failed to adequately deal with the incident at the Navy’s Tailhook Assn. convention in Las Vegas last September--shows the President “was horrified, and moved quickly to do something about” the controversy.

“I think it shows a lot about George Bush’s leadership. He moved quickly, quietly, certainly. But not by beating his chest or anything else, just to get the job done and have it looked into,” Mosbacher said.

The campaign chairman added: “I think women voters will be appreciative that the President was obviously very concerned that there may have been some women who were not treated properly, and he moved quickly to make sure that something was done about it.”

Mosbacher made his comments at a news conference after he addressed California delegates to the August Republican National Convention in Houston. Those in the audience included the state’s two GOP Senate nominees, incumbent John Seymour and former television commentator Bruce Herschensohn. Their Democrat challengers are both women--former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who faces Seymour, and Rep. Barbara Boxer, who is running against Herschensohn.

The status of women in American society has emerged as a key 1992 campaign theme, stemming in part from last year’s contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into allegations of sexual harassment against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. The success so far of candidates such as Feinstein and Boxer has led some to dub this election season “The Year of the Woman.”

Garrett’s resignation came after sharp criticism of his handling of the case in which Navy and Marine pilots at their convention allegedly formed a gantlet and pushed 26 women--including several Navy officers--through it while sexually assaulting them.

The White House greeted Garrett’s resignation with a sternly worded statement declaring that the President “seeks a full, thorough and expedited investigation” into the Tailhook incident. Conspicuous by its absence was the customary expression of regret at the loss of a loyal official.

In other comments Saturday, Mosbacher predicted that a rebounding economy and continuing media scrutiny will enable Bush to endure the challenge to his reelection posed by prospective independent candidate Ross Perot and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“We want to make sure that we get the economy rolling again because I think a lot of the support Perot gets--or anyone else gets--is due to an economy that is down, and people are saying ‘none of the above,’ ” he said.